Christmas pageant

Most of these pictures are of the Christmas pageant at church on Sunday, but there are a few others that I thought were cute. I put Ashby down on her playmat after we came in from the snow and took a few shots

The Christmas pageant was almost a "no go" this year because of all the snow we got. The kids didn't even have a chance to do a dress rehearsal, but it went really well. I organized a little cookie and punch reception afterwards so I was glad we still had it. Otherwise there were a lot of baked cookies that would go to waste. Here I am with Ashby before the big show.

Little girl in her Santa dress.

Griffin's choir were angels again this year.

A close up of Griffin.

Gray and Meghan really enjoyed watching the show. Gray has really been into talking about angels and the manger this year. He keeps asking Meghan if she has a manger at her house.

Griffin after the show.

Little Miss Kaleigh after the show. They had a great time.

Snowfall 2009

We got our first almost White Christmas ever officially last night. We took the boys outside for a bit around 7 and got some good shots. Here are our Christmas lights this year. Kind of all concentrated on the front porch, but we will work on that for next year:) Griffin really got into the snowball fight. Perfect snow for it too:)

Here was the view from our front door early this morning. You can see Brent's car stuck down in the bottom of the cove. Looks like we will be driving him to work on Monday.

The boys have loved watching the birds play in the snow. Great view from the sunroom.

It's going to be a lazy kind of day.

A quick pic of the house as we went out to play.

I bought the boys a sled on Thursday. Great timing.

All snowed in. The house looks so pretty now.

You can see how much snow we got- about 10 inches now and it is still snowing.

We tried to go sledding but the snow is almost too deep and soft. It worked a little bit.

Here they go!

At the end of the run, Griffin was cranky and tired.

Some pretty shots of the trees.

Christmas Kids

Here are some random pictures of the kids. They wore their jammies for our Tacky Lights tour. There were some really cool houses this year, but of course, I forgot to take the camera. If we do it again, I'll remember that time. Here is a preview of the boys' outfits for Allison's wedding. They will be wearing different ties, but this gives you a hint of how cute they will look:)

Sweet little Ashby in her matching outfit.

Griffin and his twin:)

Mommy and Ashby.

Getting into the spirit

We have had a lot of fun things going on this year. We got Elvis a new holiday collar and Santa hat. He looks really pleased, doesn't he?

The kids got their annual letters from Santa and they were so excited. Gray really liked his ornament- he even put it on the tree in his room.

On Saturday night we had our Sunday School Christmas party. I made a Lethal Peppermint Chocolate cake. It was pretty easy and so good:)

Brent and I before the party.

Create and Celebrate

We went to Create and Celebrate at church last weekend. It is the start of Advent, and the church has arts and crafts, a worship service, and dinner with Santa. We didn't make it for the arts and crafts this year but we had a lot of fun. Here is Brent with Ashby. The boys with the Snow Princess. Gray was okay with her.

Griffin liked Santa and had a long discussion with him. He wanted a Dinosaur Train and a monster truck.

Gray was less than cooperative (read: "terrified") so Griffin told Santa what Gray would want. I think Griffin was secretly enjoying this moment.

Our baby girl was cooperative. Luckily she didn't ask for much this year- what do you get a 5 month old for Christmas anyway?

The kids are excited

He's back! Frank, the elf on the shelf, is helping us get the kids into the Christmas spirit. Boy, are they excited. Griffin spent all Saturday morning asking when we could get our tree and when he could take the holiday train out of storage. Brent took the boys to pick out a tree this year.

We got started decorating but it didn't take long for Gray to get bored.

This was our first Christmas in the new house so we had to rearrange some furniture to find space for the tree. We decided to put it in our living room.

This was Gray's first year to get into decorating the tree.

I found a glass peacock ornament for Ashby the other day. It reminded me of her since she was a peacock for Halloween this year.

Brent helped the boys put up the holiday train. This year we laid out the track in an oval pattern so it is a longer course.

They boys wished that the train had a tunnel to go through.

So they got a bit creative.

Mimi got the kids a small Christmas tree for each of their rooms. I put the ones up in the boys rooms. They have some really cool ornaments- plane, train, car, little drummer boy. Griffin gave his tree a hug because he liked it so much.

So naturally Gray did the same.